Wedding Sermon / Joshua & Aleeta Lausch / Colossians 3:12-17 - Pastor Ted Giese / Mount Olive Lutheran Church - October 22nd 2016

Wedding Sermon - Colossians 3:12-17/ Joshua Lausch & Aleeta Kruk / Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Rev. Ted A. Giese / October 22nd

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. Josh and Aleeta. The passage from St. Paul in his letter to the Colossian Christians which we heard just a minute or two ago ended with this kind admonishment, "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." After that Paul continues that thought a bit further when he says, "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body." Then he caps it off with this encouragements saying, "And be thankful." Put on love, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, be thankful.

When Paul says, "Put on love" he isn't talking about the physical yearnings of the body or even the romantic love that the world is enamoured with. The sort of love that Paul talks about here, the kind of love that binds a couple together and brings harmony transcends all of those concerns. In 1 Corinthians Paul describes love saying, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."[1] This is the sort of love that Paul is talking about when he says, "Put on love."

Many if not all of us have heard these words before at weddings, and the day of the wedding we hear them gladly, and yet today is not just about a wedding it's about a marriage. The marriage goes on after the flowers of the wedding feast have faded away and it's in the marriage that love is truly hammered out, it is where the temptation to selfishness and irritability and resentfulness must be faced. In the heat of this challenge to put on love, day in and day out, forgiveness and kindness and patience with each other will be your best defence.

Today you are blessed to enter into Christian marriage. Whether you feel ready today or you feel nervous today, be of good cheer, you do not enter into this marriage alone. Yes you're building a family together with Jaxx and Laila but it isn't just this little family alone against the world. And yes you have your friends and your parents and the rest of your family who are here today and tomorrow to support you but it isn't just this extended family and friends alone against the world. Today the union you enter into includes Christ Jesus. St. Paul says, "let the peace of Christ rule your hearts." The peace of Christ comes in the forgiveness He has won for you, the forgiveness He gives to you when you fail to "put on love." His love for you is always kind, always patient, and where we struggles in our marriages to bears all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things, the love of Christ does not fail. In Him you will find peace, you will not find perfect peace in the things of the world, you won't even find enduring perfect peace exclusively in your hearts apart from Christ. The love Jesus put on for you in all humility endured all things, "even death on a cross."[2] Jesus says, "In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”[3]

Put on love, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, be thankful.

Thankfulness goes hand in hand with contentment. The more thankful you are the more content you will be. Be thankful for your forgiveness in Christ, by thankful for the love you have for each other the love you put on today, be thankful that the union you enter into today is meant to be a union for life: Your searching is over, the endless weariness that the world sells as independence is diminishing and today is diminished. You are free to live your life now in each other, one body joined together. You have found someone who truly desires to be united with you for the rest of your life. This is something to be thankful for. Therefore no matter how distracting life becomes put on compassionate hearts, put on kindness, put on humility, put on meekness, and patience," bear with each other, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, and live your life with a thankful heart. To the Christian Christ Jesus makes this promise, "I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[4] This promise is for your Christian life in Him and today it is for your marriage together in His name. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
[2] Philippians 2:8
[3] John 16:33
[4] Matthew 28:20